VisionFest 2004 Opens Wednesday with “Able Edwards”

VisionFest 2004 Opens Wednesday with "Able Edwards"

Director Graham Robertson and actor Scott Galbreath on the set of “Able Edwards,” which will open the 2004 VisionFest. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

VisionFest 2004 kicks off Wednesday with a screening of the low-budget sci-fi film “Able Edwards,” directed by Graham Robertson and executive produced by Steven Soderbergh. The festival, in its fourth year and organized by the Domani Vision Film Society, runs until the 27th at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Film Center in Manhattan.

Thomas Strodel‘s “On a Single Breath: The Extreme Sport of Freediving” will have its New York premiere on the second day of the festival and will be followed by a “Short Subjects” marathon at 8:15 p.m. The thriller “Sonata,” directed by Boris Undorf, will have its East Coast premiere on Saturday. Other highlights include: Leslie Neal‘s “Juvies,” a documentary narrated by Mark Wahlberg about the repercussions of adult sentencing on young criminal offenders; “The Mummy an’ the Armadillo,” starring Clare Kramer, Brad Renfro, and Busy Phillips; Academy Award nominee Tess Harper in the short “Lonely Place”; and Kathy Bates in the short “The Ingrate.”Nyle Cavazos Garcia‘s “Clean,” a film that looks at ritzy Hollywood through the eyes of a limo driver, will close out the festival’s screenings early Sunday night.

Ilya Chaiken, Tom Ellis, Jeff Mazzola, Eli Kabillio, and Ethan Spigland are the participating directors in this year’s “FiveXFive New York State of Mind DV Project.” The five New York based filmmakers created five different five minute shorts — all of which focus on the 2003 blackout — within a five-day period. The shorts will be screened the closing night of the festival following the awards ceremony.